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Tuesday, July 31, 2012

I've posted 35+ times on this blog and have never had a recipe that turned out as poorly as this American staple. Quite often my recipes turn out really well, so in order to keep myself humble here are my failed chocolate chip cookies.

This recipe is the recipe that my mom always uses for chocolate chip cookies entitled "The Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies"...I won't post the recipe because I'm going to save it for a future post when these cookies hopefully turn out correctly.

These cookies include normal baking ingredients.

And I ate some of the cookie dough even though I wasn't supposed to , they tasted fine.

Mixing the cookies.

I was pretty excited for the cookies.

I told my boyfriend that he put too many cookies onto the cookie sheet.

This was the result.

Flat square cookies.

I insisted that the next batch go in with a lot of space around each ball of dough and once again got paper thin cookies. I must not have been paying attention because somewhere in the recipe something went wrong. Expect a redemption blog eventually.

Pizza Hut has recently been advertising their new Garlic Bread Pizza and it looks great! However, it also looks like it would be easy to make at home which would save a trip to Pizza Hut and about $9.00.

Preheat oven to the temperature indicated by the back of the Garlic Bread box -- mine was 425.

Place garlic bread on a pan lined with foil.

Spread sauce onto the frozen pieces of bread.

Add cheese and toppings.

Bake. The bread box recommended baking the bread for four to five minutes -- I baked the pizza for about six or seven.

Serve.

Reviews I saw for Pizza Hut's Garlic Bread Pizza said that the pizza didn't have a strong garlic flavor. These pizza's didn't have a strong garlic flavor either, but the subtle flavor was good. The crust was crunchy, but the center was chewy. This is an easy dinner or an easy party appetizer.

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Grilled Pita Pizza is any easy way to change up your summer grilling routine and you just need three ingredients.

Ingredients:
-Pita Bread
-Sauce
-Cheese

You can use any kind of cheese and any kind of sauce. I used a Pizza Blend of cheese and spaghetti sauce.

Lay foil over the grill and place pita onto the foil. You can spray the foil with cooking spray if you'd like to, but only one out of five of my pizza's got stuck.

Add sauce.

Add as much cheese as you'd like.

Grill until the cheese is melted.

Remove from the grill.

Sometimes grilling the same veggie burgers/hot dogs and vegetable skewers gets boring, this is a great way to liven up your grill routine. You can of course add any toppings you want (it's your pizza!). The outside of the crust gets crispy, but the inside stays nice and chewy, -- which is my favorite part of pita bread. This is also a quick recipe -- from prep to finish this recipe took less than ten minutes.

This was my other contribution to the weekend at the lake. I originally found this idea on Pintrest on a blog called Erica Sweet Tooth...however she didn't have a recipe. After asking some adults in my life (mainly my boss) about making chocolate covered strawberries I decided to find a real recipe to ensure that these would turn out great.

Cut the top of the strawberry off and hollow out the inside with a melon baller.
Be careful not to cut a hole in the bottom or the sides.

Hollowed out strawberries.

Ready to be dipped in chocolate and filled with alcohol.

Make sure the outside of the strawberries is dry or the chocolate will not hold.

Melt chocolate in the microwave on half power for 1 minute, stir. Repeat on half power until the chocolate is melted and shiny.

Dip the strawberries into the chocolate. Lift and twist.

Place the dipped strawberries on a plate covered with wax paper.

Dipped chocolate goodness.

I had some left over chocolate so I lightly coated the bottom of some of the larger strawberries and drizzled the chocolate over the smaller strawberries.

You can transport the strawberries on the plate covered in wax paper or in an egg carton. I lined my egg carton with plastic wrap and then transported all eighteen strawberry "shot glasses".

Due to the fact that all of the strawberries will be different sizes there is no measurement for the amount of filling that will go into them, so just fill each strawberry with chocolate syrup then with either chocolate vodka or vanilla vodka -- I made half with one and half with the other.

I went out of town this weekend to stay at a lake house with some friends and couldn't decide what to bring. Since everyone else had the food items covered I decided it was time to turn to the alcohol selection ;)

Garnish with more graham cracker, marshmallow fluff and a chocolate square.

Serve with a spoon.

These shots were delicious! Some warnings -- don't forget to mix in the whipped topping or these pudding shots will be very strong (the first batch I made was missing the topping). Also, use the proper portions, my shots were heavy on the vodka because I didn't have the recipe printed and mixed up the milk and vodka proportions (not that there's anything wrong with a little extra vodka). These are great for a summer party and aside from the vodka the ingredients are pretty cheap -- this should be added to everyone's list of shots to try.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

I love a good breakfast recipe...and I especially love a good breakfast recipe that doesn't require too many ingredients. I found the inspiration for this recipe on Pintrest, there was no recipe linked to the picture, but the visual instructions are easy enough to follow.

You can use any color of bell pepper, in fact, a combination of colors would be good if you were making this for a large group -- each bell pepper will yield four rings. Also, tailor the number of peppers and eggs to the number of servings you will be making.

This was another good opportunity to go out to the garden -- there are lots of baby bell peppers out there, that's about to become a key ingredient.

Gather your ingredients.

Cut the stem off the pepper, taking care to remove the seeds but to leave the pepper mostly intact. Then slice the pepper into 1/4 inch rings. Once the rings are made, remove the interiors ribs of the pepper from each ring.

Place peppers into a heated pan. Flip once.

Add eggs.

My pepper rings were too deep for my eggs to cook sunny-side-up, so I gave them a flip.

Serve with toast.

Perfect for breakfast :)

I'm a big fan of having my eggs sunny-side-up, poached or over-easy so this breakfast recipe was perfect for me. It's also easy enough to serve to a large crowd and can be done cheaply. I will be making this one again!

Friday, July 20, 2012

I found this recipe on Pintrest linked to a blog called NancyCreative. Nancy said she decided to make this late one evening then went to bed hoping the loaf would taste good in the morning. Not only am I super jealous that Nancy just thinks up great recipes like this, the recipe received nothing but rave reviews so I had to try it.I also wanted to be able to use part of this zucchini from my garden which is bigger than my forearm.

Those who read my blog regularly know that I don't typically use more expensive ingredients so I used vegetable oil and the milk I had in my refrigerator (which I'm sure did nothing but make my loaf more fattening). Comments on the original blog suggested adding some white vinegar to the milk in order to mimic the tartness of buttermilk, I didn't see that suggestion until after I had started baking.

I also didn't have lemon zest, so I added a little extra lemon juice.

Preheat the oven to 350.

In a large bowl (large enough to eventually hold all of the ingredients) mix the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients which were set aside and mix.

Pour into a greased loaf pan.

Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center

Let cool for 10 minutes, then remove from the loaf pan and cool completely on a cooling rack.

While the loaf is cooling make the glaze.

Mix the powdered sugar and lemon juice together to make a thick glaze.

Spoon the glaze over the loaf.

Yet another perfect recipe to help utilize summer zucchini this lemon-loaf had the perfect balance of both lemony and sweet flavors and the zucchini helps to keep the loaf moist. This is a recipe that will be made again!

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Welcome to Vegetarian & Cooking! I am a home trained cook who has been a vegetarian for eleven years. All of the food that I post has been prepared by me and likely taste tested by my fiancé, Dave.

Please join in my adventures as I juggle life and the wonderful hobby that has become this blog. To learn more about me or Vegetarian & Cooking! please visit the tabs above, otherwise, enjoy my most recent posts.